Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber is blocked again by courts on alcohol ban

Party on, spring breakers!

The city of Miami Beach can’t ban alcohol sales from 2 to 5 a.m. like they wanted to this week and next for the peak of the Spring Break season, when thousands of college students from around the country descend.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Beatrice Butchko blocked the city’s attempt to roll back last call in the entertainment district from March 7 to 21, granting the Clevelander bar a temporary injunction against the ban, approved by the commission last month in a narrow 4-3 vote.

That’s also good news for Story nightclub, which also filed a temporary injunction, and Mango’s and anywhere else people might drink past 2 a.m.

Mayor Dan Gelber, who pushed hard in November to pass a non-binding ballot referendum to roll back last call permanently everywhere except venues deemed worthy by the commission, was not happy with the ruling.

“We are obviously disappointed,” Gelber said in a statement. “Our city seems to be held hostage by a handful of all night bars whose business model foments the disorder and chaos that endangers our residents, visitors and cops.”

Gelber frames the last call rollback as a way to control crime in South Beach and the public disorder in the streets that caused the city to close causeways last year.

But Ladra suspects he was not surprised by the judge’s ruling Tuesday. Because this is the second time a judge strikes down a selective ban on alcohol sales in Miami Beach.

The first time was last summer. The judge ruled for the owners of the Clevelander back in June and said the commission vote to temporarily rollback sales to 2 a.m. just on Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive from 5th to 15th streets was illegal. That ruling was appealed.

Even City Attorney Rafael Paz warned the mayor and commissioners that they should wait for a ruling on the appeal before taking action last month on the Spring Break ban. Guess Gelber thinks there’s enough tax dollars to waste on all this legal activity. Ladra asked for public records on legal fees for these and last year’s Lincoln Road sidewalk cafe lawsuit, but hasn’t gotten anything yet. They’re going to be hefty because there are a lot of outside attorneys involved — including Jamie Cole, managing director at Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman and three attorneys from his firm — in addition to practically the entire city attorney’s office.

Attorneys for the Clevelander could not be reached for comment. Mayor Gelber did not return calls and texts to his cellphone.

Commissioner Mark Samuelian said that this legal setback does not mean that the city can’t eventually establish a permanent 2 a.m. last call in all or most of Miami Beach.

“It’s important that we implement the will of the voters,” Samuelian said about the 57% to 43% vote on the straw ballot in November — which was a big swing from the 65% to 35% against the same measure when it failed in 2017.

He says that it won’t hurt but actually enhance South Beach’s brand.

“The longer people drink, the more bad things can happen,” Samuelian told Ladra. “Most major cities close at 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock. When you hang out the banner that you’re open til 5 a.m., you send out a message that attracts the hard partying crowd.

“Voters have spoken clearly — they want a 2 a.m. roll back,” Samuelian said.

But he also thinks that the city has had the wrong approach.

“We have to learn from what we’ve heard and whatever we do must meet legal muster,” said the commissioner, who thinks that the ability of the commission to create exceptions is the problem.

“I don’t think the commission should be picking winners and losers,” Samuelian said, using the same language one of the critics used at a commission meeting.

Commissioner Steven Meiner has said that the city may have to get a revote on the 2 a.m. last call without exceptions.

Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who voted against the Spring Break ban, said the city should start a 2 a.m. last call and grandfather those licenses that already serve alcohol until 5 a.m. and, little by little, as those change hands or become non-conforming, they get rolled back.

But the newlywed — she and chef Bernie Matz eloped in Paris last week (mazel tov) — agrees with Meiner. She says the “ballot was flawed” because it had the exceptions per commission vote as part of the ballot language.

“To do what voters voted for, is legally impossible,” Rosen Gonzalez told Ladra.

“When you play eenie, meenie, miny, moe in zoning, it’s indefensible in court,” Rosen Gonzalez said. “They knew they would lose and we’re racking up probably millions of dollars in legal bills.”

A group of local business owners and hospitality industry leaders have formed the Miami Beach Tourism and Hospitality Coalition, a non-profit that registered with the Florida Division of Corporations on Feb. 1, to oppose this, or probably any ‘last call’ measure.

Former Congressman Joe Garcia, a spokesman for the group, told Ladra that the judge has also talked about vested property rights in her rulings.

“Clearly the mayor has lost his way,” Garcia said about Gelber. “He’s doing all of this without an economic study, without a survey. It’s not a problem that has people moving out of Miami Beach.

“People are still moving here.”

Dan Gelber, Miami Beach

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber is blocked again by courts on alcohol ban added by Ladra on March 5, 2022
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